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New Cockatoo Sick or Just Tired?

HarleyQ

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Johnathon
So we went to the vet on Wednesday. Apparently she was very good for them. Hopefully a good sign in the long run. She’s very scared of me unfortunately. We will take it slow though. Her fecal was negative. Still waiting on blood results. I’m going to call them tomorrow to see what the hold up is. Harley has also been very depressed after the vet and much more afraid of me than before. Luckily she perked up a bit today when I let her out and she finally got her more permanent cage. She loves it!
 

sunnysmom

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So we went to the vet on Wednesday. Apparently she was very good for them. Hopefully a good sign in the long run. She’s very scared of me unfortunately. We will take it slow though. Her fecal was negative. Still waiting on blood results. I’m going to call them tomorrow to see what the hold up is. Harley has also been very depressed after the vet and much more afraid of me than before. Luckily she perked up a bit today when I let her out and she finally got her more permanent cage. She loves it!
I'm glad she likes her new cage and that the fecal was negative. I'm sure she'll start to warm up to you. It may sound silly but my 'too loves when I sing to him. Generally, 'toos like silliness. So singing and dancing is a fun thing to do with them, especially a bird that's not really ready to be handled yet.
 

HarleyQ

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I'm glad she likes her new cage and that the fecal was negative. I'm sure she'll start to warm up to you. It may sound silly but my 'too loves when I sing to him. Generally, 'toos like silliness. So singing and dancing is a fun thing to do with them, especially a bird that's not really ready to be handled yet.
She LOVES music. I can really get her out of her shell with that. She will bob her head and kind of bounce her wings. When she gets really into it she will halfway unfold one of her wings and bounce it like she’s at a concert. It’s adorable. Being silly is kind of why I wanted a bird. I love to sing and dance around my house.

On another note, I’m disappointed in the vet I chose. I was initially going to take her to UT vet school (where I’m enrolled and get a discount), but they didn’t have anything until the end of the month unless I did emergency. I ended up choosing another exotic vet in the area that could get her in sooner. I took her in Wednesday and they sent the bloodwork out. Usually with dogs and cats you get results overnight but sometimes with exotics it isn’t as quick, so I waited until Friday to finally call. She told me they got the results Thursday afternoon when he wasn’t in the office but he would call me after appointments. Still no call. I’m hoping that means he’s looked at them and everything is WNL, but what if he hasn’t even looked at them? Very unprofessional to me having worked in vet offices.
 

sunnysmom

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She LOVES music. I can really get her out of her shell with that. She will bob her head and kind of bounce her wings. When she gets really into it she will halfway unfold one of her wings and bounce it like she’s at a concert. It’s adorable. Being silly is kind of why I wanted a bird. I love to sing and dance around my house.

On another note, I’m disappointed in the vet I chose. I was initially going to take her to UT vet school (where I’m enrolled and get a discount), but they didn’t have anything until the end of the month unless I did emergency. I ended up choosing another exotic vet in the area that could get her in sooner. I took her in Wednesday and they sent the bloodwork out. Usually with dogs and cats you get results overnight but sometimes with exotics it isn’t as quick, so I waited until Friday to finally call. She told me they got the results Thursday afternoon when he wasn’t in the office but he would call me after appointments. Still no call. I’m hoping that means he’s looked at them and everything is WNL, but what if he hasn’t even looked at them? Very unprofessional to me having worked in vet offices.
That's frustrating. It's hard to find a good bird vet. I really disliked the first one I went to. Really like the one I have now. Hopefully, all is good with the test results.
 

HarleyQ

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Everything was WNL on the bloodwork. I guess maybe it’s the zupreem pellets doing it. He was trying to use her band number to figure out where she came from, but it wasn’t in the database apparently.
 

sunnysmom

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Everything was WNL on the bloodwork. I guess maybe it’s the zupreem pellets doing it. He was trying to use her band number to figure out where she came from, but it wasn’t in the database apparently.
I am glad everything is good. We have a section here on band numbers.
 

HarleyQ

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I just realized the vet marked Harley as slightly underweight at a 4 out of 9 scale where 5 is ideal. He didn’t mention it though. She’s only 270g which seemed small when I looked up the average. Is that small?
 

sunnysmom

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I just realized the vet marked Harley as slightly underweight at a 4 out of 9 scale where 5 is ideal. He didn’t mention it though. She’s only 270g which seemed small when I looked up the average. Is that small?
Average weight for bare eyed 'toos is 300-430 grams. I don't always get too concerned with the statistics though because some birds are just physically smaller so they weigh less. All my tiels have been on the small size. However, if your vet things she's underweight then she probably is. An easy way to tell is to check the keel bone.


Keelbone-ILLUS%20-%202.jpg
 

HarleyQ

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Average weight for bare eyed 'toos is 300-430 grams. I don't always get too concerned with the statistics though because some birds are just physically smaller so they weigh less. All my tiels have been on the small size. However, if your vet things she's underweight then she probably is. An easy way to tell is to check the keel bone.


View attachment 370259
Yea, I’ve seen that before but I can’t see her keelbone (so I guess she can’t be too underweight) and I’m letting her decide when I touch her so I can’t really tell 100%. I just don’t know if I should be doing anything extra. I mean she has a much better and more varied diet now so I’m sure she will gain some weight with me. She’s a great eater too. I’m assuming it’s not a big deal since he didn’t mention it.
 

HarleyQ

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Harley still spends a lot of time during the day sleeping. Can that be a new bird thing? She mostly just eats and sleeps. She gets 10 hours of sleep a night. Maybe I should cover her cage? I do have a lot of other animals that may be moving around at night.
 

sunnysmom

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Harley still spends a lot of time during the day sleeping. Can that be a new bird thing? She mostly just eats and sleeps. She gets 10 hours of sleep a night. Maybe I should cover her cage? I do have a lot of other animals that may be moving around at night.
She could be just setting in. My too Elvis sat quietly on top of his cage for months. We had a really long honeymoon period. Now, I call him my tasmanian devil because he is never still. He broke off all his tail feathers because he likes to roll down the steps and do somersaults. Seriously. I also cover his cage. He's up all night otherwise but some birds don't like it. You just have to see.
 

HarleyQ

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She could be just setting in. My too Elvis sat quietly on top of his cage for months. We had a really long honeymoon period. Now, I call him my tasmanian devil because he is never still. He broke off all his tail feathers because he likes to roll down the steps and do somersaults. Seriously. I also cover his cage. He's up all night otherwise but some birds don't like it. You just have to see.
That’s good to hear. I will be patiently waiting for her to exit her shell. She’s actually made some great progress already. She takes treats from my hand and I’ve gotten her to get out of the cage and even on to my rolling perch as well. She doesn’t seem too afraid of my hands anymore either. I figure maybe after this week I’ll start trying to get her to step up and see how that goes.
 
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